The day after The Decision, that contemporary monument to bad ideas (New Coke, anyone?), I offered to write a commentary/analysis on LeBron James’s decision to commit to Miami and abandon Cleveland.

I ended up trashing LeBron and The Decision … in a column I linked to a few days ago.  But before I realized I was ticked (this does happen, when you write; you don’t really know what you think until you’re about 10 grafs in) … I had started on a “think” piece looking at Big Threes in the history of the NBA, and tracking their fates.

I came back to the topic a few days later because I found it interesting, and I also had pulled up MVP lists and scoring averages for 20 guys over about 10 seasons … and well, it seemed to demand to be written.

And here it is, a look at Big Threes in NBA history, as printed in the pages of The National.

The nub of it?

First, some parameters: I limited the Big Threes in this discussion to those created by the sudden/dramatic addition of at least one perceived superstar. As opposed to some really nice trios acquired internally (or at least slowly). Which would cover the Bird-McHale-Parish Celtics and the Magic-Kareem-Worthy Lakers). And I excluded collections of way-past-their-primes talent (which leaves out the Kobe-Shaq-Malone-Payton Lakers).

So. We seem to have identified three nubs.

1. It helps a lot if the three guys like each other. Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor didn’t like each other. (Hard to like Wilt, as a teammate, and he was a teammate in only the loosest sense of the word — wearing the same jersey.)

2. The supporting cast actually does matter. Three guys don’t win a five-man game. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen didn’t just join Paul Pierce, they joined Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, James Posey, Eddie House, Tony Allen, etc. Quite a nice supporting cast, as the Lakers could have told you after the 2008 NBA Finals. However, when Charles Barkley hooked up with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in Houston in 1996 … the cupboard was pretty much empty, unless your tastes run to Mario Elie and Matt Maloney in the backcourt.

Miami’s supporting cast is a work in progress.

3. Age could be critical. Most of the Big Threes were on the backside of their careers. The Houston trio, in particular. The Lakers threesome certainly wasn’t young, either. All were in their 30s, in an era when careers ended sooner. The Philadelphia trio I mention in the “breakout box” at the bottom of the link … well, Andrew Toney wasn’t really a star, but he was pretty good, and the point is that Philly got Moses Malone, MVP,  at age 25. And promptly won a championship.

The Heat trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh … those guys are 25, 28 and 26, respectively. In theory, they haven’t even hit their peaks.

So, bottom line, it looks pretty good for the Miami Heat, even if I will be pulling against them for as long as the amigos play together.

They seem to like each other … and they aren’t over the hill. What matters most is the issue of “what sort of supporting players can Pat Riley round up?”

Probably more than we think, even for this season, but by next season (if there is a next season; the lockout, etc.), when the cap isn’t as constricting … this team could be crush-the-league good.